Joybubbles

“Joybubbles demonstrates the ingenuity of disabled people who are forced to navigate a world that isn’t built for them.”

Title: Joybubbles (2026)
Director: Rachael J. Morrison 👩🏼🇺🇸
Producers: Sarah Winshall 👩🏼🇺🇸, Will Butler 👨🏼🇺🇸♿, and Annie Marr 👩🏼🇺🇸

Reviewed by Li 👩🏻🇺🇸

Technical: 3/5

Joybubbles is director Rachael J. Morrison’s labor of love and the product of over a decade of research. The documentary had its Sundance Film Festival debut last evening and sheds light on the titular tech pioneer (née Joe Engressia), born blind, who discovered an ingenious method of hacking phone lines, thereby creating a subculture of fellow “phone phreaks.” Joybubbles mixes archival footage, surrealist clips of floating spheres and spinning telephones, and interviews with Joybubbles’ friends to set a whimsical mood as viewers get to know the man.

But the roaming, unstructured narrative makes the documentary feel more like a vibe than a biography. It’s enjoyable to have on in the background, but with this floaty approach, it’s difficult to get invested in the film’s interesting topics of disabled excellence, counterculture, and tech history.

Gender: 3/5
Does it pass the Bechdel Test? NOPE

The documentary homes in on male subject Joybubbles, and interview subjects are primarily men. But behind the lens, female creatives like director Rachael J. Morrison and producers Sarah Winshall and Annie Marr tell Joybubbles’ story.

Race: 2/5

Few, if any, people of color appear in this documentary. But the film’s scope is small, focusing on a Virginia-born, Minneapolis-based main subject and his friends—all of whom are white.

Bonus for Disability: +1.00

Joybubbles demonstrates the ingenuity of disabled people who are forced to navigate a world that isn’t built for them. With a cheeky sense of mischief, Morrison reveals anecdotes from Joybubbles’ life, often in his own words via voiceover, that exist through the lens of disability: discrimination, the excitement of gaining independence, and other narratives that neither ignore Joybubbles’ blindness nor sensationalize it to the point where it becomes his entire identity.

Mediaversity Grade: C 3.00/5

Joybubbles has an uplifting story about a creative, loving, vulnerable, and pioneering blind man. But it keeps the spotlight on him and his friends, leaving out intersectional nuances that might be lurking beneath the oft-seen headline about a white male genius who achieved incredible things.

Like Joybubbles? Try these films with blind characters.

Grade: CLiJanuary 27, 2026Female/Nonbinary Creator